5Things to Read This Weekend

Now that it’s the weekend, it’s time to take a break. Why not catch up on some Journal coverage you may have missed earlier this week, involving politicians engaging in rap battles to try and get young people voting, stores refining their aromas to entice customers, and a fashion house recycling its castoffs at premium prices.

A growing number of stores are using “scent marketing” to woo customers with aromas. Restaurants are adjusting recipes to make aromas more concentrated and pleasant, while stores are installing discreet misters to diffuse essence of tea, wood and other scents into the air.

Bakery chain Cinnabon places ovens near the front of its stores so the enticing smell of warm cinnamon rolls escapes when oven doors open, said its president. Over time, the company has recognized that aroma is a huge part of its formula.

For decades, Sherpas have tempted fate on Mount Everest for their clients’ goals and the survival of their families. Those risks came into stark focus on April 18, when a falling mass of ice killed 16 people. It was the single deadliest day on Everest and has raised questions about the largely unregulated way the mountain is run.

French fashion house Hermès is turning its waste stream—flawed silk scarves, broken glassware, discontinued-color leather and crocodile skins—into whimsical new products, called “Petit h.” For instance, a large orange bookcase, shaped like an angular squirrel from one angle, is made of steel encased in Togo calfskin once destined for Hermès leather goods.

But Petit h products are as expensive as they are rare.

$10,200
The price of a buffalo leather sailboat whose sail was once a "Petit Duc" silk scarf.

Passwords are a bane to computer, and smartphone and tech users and a security threat to companies. Last month, some experts called a flaw in Internet encryption known as Heartbleed one of the worst holes ever discovered in the Web’s defenses, potentially exposing billions of passwords to hackers.